


Underprepared But Willing

by betheflame



Series: StarkBucks Bingo 2020 [7]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alternate Universe - No Powers, Established Relationship, Friendsgiving, M/M, Meet the Family, Thanksgiving, Thanksgiving Dinner
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-26
Updated: 2020-11-26
Packaged: 2021-03-10 01:47:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,001
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27725708
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/betheflame/pseuds/betheflame
Summary: Tony is heading to a big family holiday for the first time with his boyfriend. He's terrified and has absolutely no reason to be other than that he's Tony.
Relationships: Clint Barton/Natasha Romanov, James "Bucky" Barnes/Tony Stark, Steve Rogers/Sam Wilson
Series: StarkBucks Bingo 2020 [7]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1738231
Comments: 58
Kudos: 231
Collections: Marvel Holiday Movie Prompt Fest 2020, StarkBucksBingo2020





	Underprepared But Willing

**Author's Note:**

> A bit of a take on "The Family Stone" which is on the Autumn Prompts list for the Holiday Movie Prompt challenge. The starkbucks bingo fill is a bit spoilery, so it's going in the endnotes.

“Tones, stop ya futzing.”

Tony looked over at his boyfriend. “I’m not futzing.”

“You have changed playlists six times since we left the city,” Bucky said with a laugh. “They’re going to love you, I promise.”

Yes, because everything you’ve told me about your collection of college friends screams ‘they’d like me’, Tony grumbled internally. He’d been stressed about this Friendsgiving situation since Bucky had brought it up two weeks ago.

_“It’s the perfect chance to meet everyone at once and get it over with,” Bucky explained. Steve and Sam’ll be in from Germany, and Nat loves having everyone under one roof. You’re part of everyone now. Plus, Ma and Sarah make the best pie on the planet.”_

_“But --”_

_“Tony, we have been together for nine months and you have blown off meeting my friends for eight of them. I get that family isnt’ a thing to you, but it is to me, and if you say no to this, then I gotta rethink some things,” Bucky said, his voice even._

It wasn’t an ultimatum and Tony knew it. Bucky was just being honest - they were in their 30s, after all, and fucking around didn’t really hold much appeal for him. He’d said that before - that he was open to permanence with Tony and was acting accordingly.

That his boyfriend said things like ‘open to permanence’ was one of the reasons Tony was even entertaining the idea. Marriage and forever hadn’t been on his radar at all - they were for suckers, as far as he was concerned - and then he was Pepper’s plus one to a gala thing and got seated next to the most beautiful man Tony ever did see.

“It’s just that I don’t even know what to talk about,” Tony said on a sigh. It was the thing that was eating him the most. “I don’t watch sports, and I don’t know anything about the ballet, and --”

“Sam’s been obsessed with Star Wars since he was a kid, so open with your theories on the parentage of Baby Yoda -”

“He’s not baby Yoda, he’s -”

“I know and I don’t care, and Baby Yoda is a cute name, but you know who will care? Sam. And Steve shares my lack of give a damn, so you’ll be good,” Bucky said with a grin. He reached over and squeezed Tony’s knee. “Sweetheart, just be yourself. They love me and I love you, and that wins a lot of points in this room. I don’t come with a terrible family or a mom who will nag you. You’ve won her over completely and Sarah as well. And Steve trusts Sarah and me, so there aren’t going to be shovel talks.”

“I come with three people,” Tony said, his voice slightly strangled.

“And I come with a lot more,” Bucky said, like he knew where Tony was going and wanted to cut it off. “That doesn’t mean anything about us except that our lives are different. I loved college and had a great time in grad school and I did it all geographically close so that I just kept adding to my circle instead of creating new ones. You hated prep school, only trusted Rhodey and Pepper in college, and then added Happy once you needed security. This is not a big deal, Tones. I promise.”

Tony sighed and laced his fingers through Bucky’s. He was so sure Bucky was wrong, but trying to convince his boyfriend otherwise was an exercise in futility. So he just changed the playlist one more time and stared out the window.

* * *

“I like him, Buck,” Steve said quietly as they all milled around after dinner and before dessert. “Ma said I would, and Winnie thinks he’s the shit, but I needed to see it for myself. And they’re right. He’s good.”

Bucky grinned. “I told you.”

“Yeah, well, you also ‘told me’ about Lawrence Cartwright, and Charles O’Leary, and Peter Vasquez, and -”

“Yeah, yeah, I get your point, ya asshat,” Bucky said and shoved his step-brother in the shoulder. They’d grown up just as best friends, their mothers were both widows and single moms and the four had become a makeshift family. It wasn’t until the boys were in college that their mothers announced they were actually quite in love and were going to get married.

Winnie Barnes had always been an adopter of humans. Bucky’s friends all knew the garage code to get in the house, she stocked their favorite snacks, and counseled nearly every single one of his girl friends like their favorite Aunt. Winnie was a walking hug - always ready to both comfort and guide, and then smack you upside the head if you were being an idiot. Bucky told people that the best parts of him came from his mom and the worst parts had been made better by Sarah.

Sarah Rogers was quieter, much like her son. Steve was a completely solid presence in Bucky’s life from the day they had met. They both got into scrapes, but Steve always knew who he was, always believed in Bucky, always was his brother - even before the legality of it.

So Steve was the final one Bucky needed to hear from.

They’d decided not to do any internet introductions. They lived a lot of their life on Zoom - Sam had taken a job with a German aerospace company right after the pair got married - but Bucky had been honest and told Steve introducing Tony over a screen felt wrong. Steve replied that Bucky must really into Tony and Bucky said ‘when you meet him, you’ll understand’.

“So you gonna propose?” Steve said, making sure to keep his voice quiet and Bucky nodded slightly.

“I wanted him to meet you all, to know that you’d like him, that it wouldn’t be this giant mess,” Bucky explained before he took a long sip of his whiskey. “He cannot understand family.”

“Well,” Steve replied and gestured to where Tony was building an elaborate Lego contraption with Nat and Clint’s kids, “I think he’s getting the hang of it.”

* * *

“And then,” Tony said, taking a dramatic pause, “she drove directly into the lake!”

The table howled with laughter, as Tony knew they would. The debutante-in-the-wrecked-golf-cart story always was a crowd pleaser. He felt Bucky’s hand on his knee and settled himself into the moment.

“You won them over already, baby, calm down,” Bucky whispered in his ear and Tony was amazed that his boyfriend knew him that well. Bucky knew he only broke out that story when he was nervous and trying to soothe a room. “Any tension you’re feeling is just coming from you, I promise.”

Tony leaned into Bucky’s side a bit and caught Sarah’s eye. The older woman winked at him and he felt a slight blush creeping up. Mom affection was something he was going to have to get used to, he supposed.

“Uncle Steve,” Maggie said around a mouthful of pie, “is it turkey hat time?”

“Turkey hat time?” Tony said.

“It can be, kiddo,” Steve replied and got up from the table. He returned with a rubber hat that was, in fact, shaped like the back half of a cooked turkey.

“Can someone tell Mr. Tony the rules?” Sam asked, peering at the smallest inhabitants of their family.

“I CAN,” four-year-old Carter said loudly. “Mr. Tony, we all take turns wearing the turkey and saying what we’re thankful for. I get to go first because I’m the baby.”

“We go in age order?” Tony clarified.

“No, just for Carter and Maggie,” Nat replied, “because otherwise they get ants in their pants, don’t you?” She leaned over to tickle her son quickly and the affection made Tony squirm a little.

 _You want this, you know you do. Stop being such a coward,_ he scolded himself slightly. When he and Bucky had started dating, he’d been a mess to Pepper so often about how quickly he was falling and how scared he was of happily ever afters and all of it that she had basically frog marched him to therapy.

It had helped, but he was still scared.

‘Underprepared but willing,’ was the line from the Sara Barellies song and one that Tony would use when he asked Bucky to marry him later on that night.

Steve plopped the hat onto Carter’s head, which covered his eyes as well, and Carter loudly and quickly said that he was thankful for his family, his dog Parker, his friends at school, and Pokemon. Maggie listed her family, her dog Parker, her friends at school, Blackpink, and Dolly Parton, and said it all with earnestness that Tony had to ask.

“Why Dolly Parton?”

“Because she is an angel on earth,” Maggie said solemnly, “and she gives away tons of books to kids who can’t read and I can’t imagine not reading and not having books, so I am thankful for her making those kids’ lives better. Mr. Tony, she is amazing.”

“I didn’t know that,” Tony said and Maggie grinned at him.

“Find me after dessert and I’ll tell you all about her,” she said.

“And oh, will she,” Clint said, as he removed the hat from her head and plunked it onto his. The hat then proceeded around the table and the answers were both trite and beautiful. Clint told a brief story about how thankful he was for his boss and how Mr. Fury had arranged for someone to get a new car after theirs had been totaled and did it all in secret. Sam shared about a German government initiative he thought was going to have an actual impact on climate change. Steve said that he was thankful for Sam especially this year as the waiting for an adopted child got harder and harder. Winnie said she was thankful Bucky had found Tony and the “hear, hear” that went up around the table brought the sharp sting of tears to Tony’s eyes.

And then, it was his turn, and the words were out of his mouth before he could stop them.

“I’m thankful for James - not just Bucky - but the pieces of him that you guys don’t know like I do. I get to watch him in the courtroom and see how judges respect him, and how his clients feel safe with him. I get to watch his colleagues tell me to get ready, because he’s going to be mayor someday, and I get to watch him do his best to make sure the law works as best as possible. I’m also thankful for Bucky - the man who I see when his colleagues don’t, who makes me laugh and makes me feel safe, and… I’m thankful that I finally found someone who makes me believe in happily ever afters and, I was going to wait to do this, but if you don’t say yes when i’m wearing a rubber turkey, can I really know you love me? Anyway, James Barnes, whaddya say we get married?”

The table was silent for a minute before Bucky laughed. “Son of a bitch, that was my line. Yes, of course.”

“Uncle Bucky said a swear jar word,” Carter reported.

“We’ll let it slide this time,” Nat replied.

“What do you mean, ‘your line’? Tony asked.

Bucky fished in his pocket and pulled out a simple ring. “Because you’re what I’m thankful for, too.”

The whole table melted into background noise at that point for Tony, who pulled Bucky into a kiss. Bucky slipped the ring on his finger and Tony moved the turkey hat to Steve’s head. The table settled down as Steve broke out in a grin.

“I’m happy I finally have a brother who can figure out how to set up a WiFi network.” When the table broke out in giggles and Tony saw Bucky blush, he asked for clarification. Steve and Nat launched into a story about Nat’s first apartment out of college and Tony settled into the rhythms around him.

Happy Thanksgiving, indeed.

**Author's Note:**

> Starkbucks I5: Proposal.
> 
> And Dolly Parton is an [actual angel](https://theboot.com/dolly-parton-charity-work/) and I'll hear no arguments. 
> 
> If you liked the story, I'd love to know! Kudos and comments are life giving. If you're not sure what to say in the comment, know that I take keyboard smashes and emojis as full love. So, if you liked it more than just a kudos, dropping a heart emoji is great and I thank you in advance.
> 
> Find me on [Twitter](http://www.twitter.com/betheflame1) or [Tumblr](http://betheflame.tumblr.com) for more on these yahoos. You can also submit prompts and cajole me into writing faster - it usually works. If you're on Discord, I'm definitely there, too, and probably hanging in the [Put on the Suit Stony Server ](https://discord.gg/z5WSqbS) or the [STB Enthusiasts Stuckony](https://discord.gg/ktXHUb4) one.  
>   
> Oh! And FestiveFerret and I have a [fandom podcast](http://www.podonthesuit.com) if you're so inclined.  
>   
> 


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